Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

Parents Paint Clown Instead of Shark on Boy’s Face

Are you on facebook? I know a lot of people who for one reason or another are not on facebook. I joined several years ago when I was hosting foreign exchange students. At the time, it was one way for me to monitor their online activities. Since then, I have found hundreds of friends on facebook. Some are classmates from elementary or high school, some are family, some are current or former co-workers, but at least half are entertainers.

In my opinion, there are more reasons to join facebook than to avoid facebook. For one thing, facebook is a great way to share news and pictures with friends and family.

Like all users on facebook, I have a personal page where I can post pictures and updates. I can use that page to identify family and friends, like other pages, and interact with groups. I also have a page for my work as an entertainer. I post pictures from my events, messages about where I will be next, and can have both friends and customers like me. I have a few groups on facebook for my clown alley and jam groups. With these groups, our members can share pictures, event updates, and other news.

Watching other people on facebook, I have come to realize that one must use some caution. I know several people who mix there personal interests (politics, religion, etc.) and their professional interests. I don’t think they always realize that their jokes and comments can be seen not only by their friends but also their customers. Sometimes, I think that if I was their customer, I would stop doing business with them based on their facebook comments and complaints.

If you are NOT on facebook yet, I suggest you get an account. If you are on facebook, I suggest you evaluate your profile and determine if you need to further separate your personal page from your business identity. Also, I suggest that you think twice before positing a comment that others may find offensive.

If you have a website, you probably get email messages from people offering to help improve your website. I get regular emails telling me that my websites are not on top rankings for most of the keywords pertaining to my domain.

While this may be true, their help is unsolicited. I have a personal policy to NEVER do business with a company that I didn’t solicit. I understand enough about website rankings and keywords to be able to improve my own website. (It takes time to do it right.) If and when I was ever to decide that I need help with my websites, I will take the first step. I will review several companies and pick the one that I feel offers the best value and service. I will NOT just pick the first company that sends me an email offer for support.

I don’t take much notice of the offers of support, but I suppose that for some people they could serve as a nudge. Maybe it is worth seeing how your website ranks in the search results. If you can’t find your own website when looking for a generic term, maybe you do need help with your keywords. But, I suggest you do your homework and pick the company that you want to do business with.

I have recently launched two new websites. Although the primary target audience of the websites is clowns, there will still be information that should be of interest to face painters, balloon twisters and other types of children’s entertainers.

The first website is Just for Clowns. Just For Clowns is a blog for the professional clown. The purpose of this blog is to promote, preserve and present the time-honored profession of clowning by providing professional clowns with information that will help them become the best clown they can be. It will have information about upcoming conventions, makeup and costume tips, product reviews, and other information related to clowing around.

The second website is Websites for Clowns. I plan to use Websites for Clowns to present topics related to the business side of being a clown including websites, business cards, and marketing. I launched my own personal website in 2004 and since then have created and maintained several other websites for myself and others. I have also spent countless hours on the Internet and hope to be able to share some of what I have learned.

Sometimes when I visit a website, I immediately notice something, the dates. It seems to be easier to create a website than it is to maintain that website. As a result, there are a lot of websites on the Internet that have not been edited for many years.

If you have a website (something I think that all face painters, balloon twisters, clowns, magicians, etc. should have) then I highly suggest that you take the time ever 4-6 months to update your website. I had a friend who said that every year, at the very least, she updates the files to make sure the last modified date represents the current calendar year.

I think the classics are always a good choice for Halloween. This year, I chose to be Frankenstein. I actually dressed up twice, once the day before Halloween and once on Halloween.

Mike Becvar as Frankenstein on Halloween 2011

Mike Becvar as Frankenstein the day before Halloween 2011

I run my own websites and help several friends and groups with their websites. Some of them, I manage and host and some have their own registration and accounts. Every few months, someone will contact me and ask a question about a message or piece of mail they got concerning their website. Most of the time, I tell them to ignore/throw away the message.

If you have a website, it is important that you take some ownership in the website and know where your domain names are registered and who is hosting your website. With this information, you can avoid most scams.

Today, I found a piece of mail in my mailbox that looks like a bill and lists the domain names of two of my websites (including this one). The letter tells me that my domain name registration is due to expire in the next few months and that I must renew them to retain exclusive rights to them on the web.

The letter reads:

As a courtesy to domain holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registrations that are due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to [name deleted], you can take advantage of our best savings. Your domain name registrations will expire on March 1, 2012. Act today!

You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your names from your current Registrar to the [name deleted]. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it diffucult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web.

Privatation of Domain Registrations and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars when initially registering and also when renewing a domain name. Domain name holders are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current Registrar or with the [name deleted]. Review our prices and decide for yourself. You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer. This notice is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration to the [name deleted].

I was somewhat surprised, it was not as hard of a sell as I would have expected. They do say it is not a bill, even though it has a payment stub like a real bill. I can see how someone could see the bottom portion and just pay it without reading the attached letter. I didn’t read the fine print to see what they offer, but their prices seem to be 3 times as much as I currently pay.

I still consider it a SCAM. I have no business with this company and they are hoping that I am not smart enough to realize that. They are trying to get me to pay them instead of the companies I really did choose to do business with (Go Daddy and Host Gator).

A few of my friends did respond to such a request by paying the bill. Fortunately, most of the better domain registration companies will not transfer your website registration without your approval. I am not sure if my friends were able to get their money back, but they did NOT loose their websites.

It is OK to get help from a friend who offers to build your website or to pay someone to build it for you, but do NOT pay bills without first checking with them to make sure they are legit.

If you are serious about what you do, you really need a website. If you are technically savvy, you can create a new website in a day. Now, it will probably take longer if you want to make a good website, complete with pictures of your work, and content that will both help people find you and decide to book you for their event. If you are not technically savvy, find someone who can build and help you maintain your website. Once your website is up and running, it is all to easy to move on to another project and forget about it.

Personally, I think that one of the most important things about a website is that it is up to date. I have visited way too many websites that list an “upcoming event” that is a year or more ago. I guess that event didn’t go well and they are now out of business… More likely, the event went well and they just don’t have time to think about and update their website.

I have several personal websites and I manage the websites for several groups. It takes me time to get around to updating all of those websites. I have linked a few websites to facebook, and since facebook is easier to update, the net effect is that the website also has access to newer content. I know that I am not following my own advice because I have told many people that facebook should send people to your website and not the other way around. I am taking the easy route and using my website to lead people to facebook.

In an ideal world, every month, you should review your website to make sure it is up to date and selling your services. If it isn’t, make the needed changes.

You should also check out your competition. What do you like or not like about their websites? Are there ideas that you can use to improve your own website. Please don’t steal their content, but use it as inspiration.

If you haven’t visited your own website in a while, go take a look and see what needs updating.

Here are two YouTube videos that show girls having their faces painted like butterflies.

Welcome to the new Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog at FaceAndBalloonArt.com.  This is a website project by Mike Becvar. This website has been on the drawing board since the spring of 2010 and is finally beginning to take shape.

I hope to use the website and blog as a resource for the professional face painter and balloon twister. I plan to post articles related to industry news, new products, or upcoming events.

In 2009, I started another website project, The Clown Network, where I am creating a resource for the professional clown. One of the challenges that I faced with that website is the fact it is hand coded and not using a database to manage the content. It means it takes a little more effort on my part to maintain and update the content. I am hoping that by using a WordPress Blog template, that it will be a little easier for me to manage this website.

There is still a lot of work to do, but this project is finally off the ground.

Welcome and let’s hope for a long and successful future.